Gov. Rick Scott is pulling out all the stops to lure companies to Florida. He convinced lawmakers to cut the sales tax cut on manufacturing equipment and do away with regulations that could hinder economic growth. Scott says his efforts are working and now he's more than halfway to fulfilling his promise to create 700,000 jobs in seven years. The Tampa Bay Times' PolitiFact team rated that claim mostly false. More at WGCU.

Sales and Marketing Advice for Florida business How to turn bad news into good news and gain a customer for life

We all know that eventually something will go wrong with a promise made to a customer. It happens to the best of companies. And most prospects and customers know it happens too. The measure of a great company is how issues are handled and resolved. Read Ron Stein's full column.

Startup Quest launching in Broward, around the state

Business Profile

Sarasota's Laser Pegs does Lego one better

Jon Capriola is taking on a toy Goliath by making a run at Lego with his own line of buildable bricks and construction toys.

The Sarasota entrepreneur's Laser Pegs toys started as an idea in Capriola's garage and, a decade later, his company has become one of the fastest-growing toy brands on retail shelves.

Startup Quest is a free 10-week program created for college-educated unemployed or under-employed people who want to learn about starting a technology company. In sort of a reverse accelerator fashion, the ideas for the companies that will be created will not come from the class participants themselves — they will come from the mentors in the program, based on technology in the technology licensing programs at FIU, UF, NASA and other schools and agencies. More at the Miami Herald.

Small Business Advice From a mule comes a leadership lesson

Forcing people to do your will might work sometimes, but there is a better, more effective alternative. You will get far better results if you lead by letting others feel empowered and capable of solving their own problems. Read Jerry Osteryoung's full column.

Recipe for failure? Restaurants open where others went belly up

There are many reasons behind the "cursed location," form bad parking to high rent to the difficulty of opening a new business in general. Hopeful entrepreneurs still take chances on these locales -- and sometimes, they turn them around. More at the Orlando Sentinel.

On the Air New radio show is in tune with veterans

For veterans, camaraderie usually happens in American Legion or VFW posts with dim, smoky bars and wood-paneled walls, bingo on weeknights and fish fry fundraisers. In South Florida, there's now a different kind of forum for the thousands of veterans who live here. It's called Military Mail Call with Sarge, a call-in show on the AM dial, which has a signal that carries from Miami to Stuart to Lake Okeechobee.